“In many ways, the entire year at the Book Review is a lead-up to this moment,” she wrote in an email.

“Each week, after we review a book, we decide whether it deserves to be an Editors’ Choice. At the end of the year, we pull together these 500 or so works and narrow them down to 100 books, 50 fiction and 50 nonfiction. The real winners are readers.”

The film is “like an expertly tailored suit or a properly cooked classic dish. It’s not so much a work of art as a triumph of craft, and therefore a reminder of the deep pleasures of old-fashioned technique and long experience,” he wrote.

If you don’t make it to the theater, “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life” is streaming on Netflix, and we have a few other recommendations for smaller screens.